Roland Matthes (, ; 17 November 1950 – 20 December 2019) was a German swimmer and the most successful
backstroke
Backstroke or back crawl is one of the four Swimming (sport), swimming styles used in competitive events regulated by FINA, and the only one of these styles swum on the back. This swimming style has the advantage of easy breathing, but the disa ...
swimmer of all time. Between April 1967 and August 1974 he won all backstroke competitions he entered. He won four European championships and three world championships in a row, and swam 19 world and 28 European records in various backstroke, butterfly and medley events.
[ He was trained by Marlies Grohe.][
]
Swimming career
As an Olympian in 1968, 1972 and 1976 he won a total of eight medals (four gold, two silver and two bronze): In 1968 and 1972 he won gold in both the 100 m and 200 m backstroke, while in 1976 he was third in the 100 m backstroke. In addition to these individual events, he won the 4 × 100 m team medley silver in 1968 and 1972, and a bronze medal for the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay in 1972.[ At Montreal, he was the only East German male swimmer to win a medal.
In 1973 in ]Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
he became the first world champion holding the titles in both the 100 m
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
and 200 m backstroke. Additionally he won silver in the 4 × 100 m medley and bronze in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay. Two years later in 1975 he defended his world title in the 100 m backstroke.
At the European championships in 1970 in Barcelona and 1974 in Vienna he won all four titles for the 100 and 200 m backstroke. Additionally, in Barcelona he won the individual silver for the 100 m freestyle, gold with the 4 × 100 m medley team, and bronze with both the 4×100 and 4 × 200 m freestyle teams. In Vienna, he also won the individual silver for 100 m butterfly, and bronze with the 4 × 100 m freestyle team.
He was selected East German Sportspersonality of the Year
The German Sportspersonality of the Year has been chosen annually since 1947, with separate awards made for men and women. The record holder is tennis player Steffi Graf, who won five awards. Swimmer Michael Groß, tennis player Boris Becker, a ...
seven times, in 1967–1971, 1973 and 1975. In 1981 he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame
The International Swimming Hall of Fame and Museum (ISHOF) is a history museum and hall of fame, located at One Hall of Fame Drive, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States, operated by private interests and serving as the central point for the stu ...
.[
From 1970 to 1977 he studied sport sciences at DHfK in Leipzig and from 1978 to 1984 he studied medicine at the ]University of Jena
The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany.
The un ...
.[ After graduating he worked as an ]orthopedic surgeon
Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics ( alternatively spelt orthopaedics), is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgical and nonsurgical means to treat musculoskeletal ...
. He retired from swimming in 1976, and in May 1978 married Kornelia Ender
Kornelia Ender (later Matthes now Grummt, born 25 October 1958 in Plauen, Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt) is a former East German swimmer who at the 1976 Summer Olympics became the first woman swimmer to win four gold medals at a single Olympic Games, ...
, a fellow East German Olympic swimmer. They divorced in 1982.[
The issue of ]doping in East Germany
The government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) conducted a decades long program of coercive administration and distribution of performance-enhancing drugs, initially testosterone, later mainly anabolic drugs to its elite athletes. The ai ...
brought into questioning most achievements of East German athletes. However, Matthes denied any involvement in doping, claiming that his swimming club was too small to be part of the government system.[
]
Death
Matthes died on December 20, 2019 at the age
of 69.
His competitor in the backstroke and five time Olympic champion John Naber
John Phillips Naber (born January 20, 1956) is an American former competitive swimmer, five-time Olympic medalist and former world record-holder in multiple events.
Born in Evanston, Illinois, Naber studied in England and Italy where his father ...
said of Matthes upon his death "Roland was the greatest backstroker that ever lived. He is the only swimmer to successfully defend both Olympic backstroke titles, and he also won medals in international competition in freestyle and butterfly. Some say that only a slow reaction to the gun kept Roland from giving Mark Spitz
Mark Andrew Spitz (born February 10, 1950) is an American former competitive swimmer and nine-time Olympic champion. He was the most successful athlete at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, winning seven gold medals, each in world-record ti ...
the race of his life in the 1972 Olympic 100-meter butterfly final in Munich. Matthes was invincible on his back for a decade. His smooth strokes and powerful acceleration made every race I watched him swim become a foregone conclusion".
See also
* List of members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame
The International Swimming Hall of Fame
The International Swimming Hall of Fame and Museum (ISHOF) is a history museum and hall of fame, located at One Hall of Fame Drive, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States, operated by private interests a ...
* World record progression 100 metres backstroke
This is a history of the 100 m backstroke world record as swum in both long-course (50 m; Olympic) pools and short-course (25 m) pools—the two categories recognized/tracked by FINA.
Men
Long course
Short course
Women
Long c ...
* World record progression 200 metres backstroke
This is a history of the progression of the world record for the 200-meter backstroke event. It is a listing of the fastest-time-ever swum in the event, in both long course (50-meter) and short course (25-meter) swimming pools. These records ar ...
* World record progression 4 × 100 metres medley relay
This article includes the world record progression for the 4×100 metres medley relay, and it shows the chronological history of world record times in that competitive swimming event. The 4×100 metres medley relay is a medley race in which each o ...
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Matthes, Roland
1950 births
2019 deaths
People from Pößneck
East German male backstroke swimmers
East German male butterfly swimmers
East German male freestyle swimmers
Sportspeople from Thuringia
East German physicians
20th-century German physicians
German orthopedic surgeons
Olympic swimmers of East Germany
Swimmers at the 1968 Summer Olympics
Swimmers at the 1972 Summer Olympics
Swimmers at the 1976 Summer Olympics
Olympic gold medalists for East Germany
Olympic silver medalists for East Germany
Olympic bronze medalists for East Germany
World record setters in swimming
Olympic bronze medalists in swimming
World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming
European Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming
Medalists at the 1968 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics
Olympic gold medalists in swimming
Olympic silver medalists in swimming
Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit (honor clasp)
20th-century surgeons